In their normal daily lives, citizens purchase digital media, format shift media, consume the media, and later discard the media. When done with paper media, it is common to donate the unneeded copies to a local library rather then simply destroying them. LOCOL's intention is to be the equivalent local library for digital media.

The OFF System is an open service that anyone can use in the course of their everyday lives. OFF allows them to store a personal copy of their media on a virtual server where they can privately access it from anywhere.

When they have no longer have use for the copy, they simply leave it where it is, and they tell the Library of Citizens On-Line where to find it. If the submission meets the LOCOL catalog vetting guidelines, its URL will be added to the catalog.

People Needed

• Leader: Acts as the public face for the Library of Citizens on-line. Must be well spoken and sympathetic to the public.
• Legal Representation: To make sure we stay on the straight and narrow. Our intentions are consistent with historical library logic, but everything digital is new and scary to industry.
• Content Manager: Responsible for building a team or community to take responsibility for vetting all entries to the catalog according to the vetting rules below.

Vetting Rules

All catalog entries to the Library of Citizens On-Line must:

• Reference copies purchased by or legally made by a citizen.
• Not be an anonymous donation.
• Have a demonstrably legal provenance available to LOCOL should questions arise of its legimacy. 

Technologies Needing to be implemented

• A way to submit URLs to this site.
  
• A way to browse URLs from this site.
  
• A temporary place to store URLs
• The OFF Catalog Server

Content Needs 

This catalog is not focused on public domain content. Those submissions should be sent to the Public Domain Repository. The LOCOL is focused on:

• Media originating in electronic form.
• Scans of media originating in a physical form

• Books
• Magazines
• Audio
  
• Videos
• And most other things you would find in a traditional library.